Changing Label Code in Label

[Madora Balchan]

Hey everyone,

I have received a data set where the sender incorrectly assigned the wrong codes for my sex variable. Instead of having male, female, and other as 0, 1 and 2 respectively; they have instead assigned 1 as male, 2 as female, and 3 as other. I have tried to fix this with my commands and while it works for female and other, when typing the command for male replaces it with 3.

I would like to replace the code for male from 3 to 0. Is there a way to change the label codes itself?

Thanks very much for the help!

[Nick Cox]

We can't say what's wrong with your code because you don't show any. Nor do you give a data example.

But this may help.

* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input float wrong
1
2
3
end
label values wrong wrong
label def wrong 1 "male", modify
label def wrong 2 "female", modify
label def wrong 3 "other", modify
 
gen right = wrong - 1 

label def right 0 male 1 female 2 other 

label val right right 

list 

     +-----------------+
     |  wrong    right |
     |-----------------|
  1. |   male     male |
  2. | female   female |
  3. |  other    other |
     +-----------------+

list, nola 

     +---------------+
     | wrong   right |
     |---------------|
  1. |     1       0 |
  2. |     2       1 |
  3. |     3       2 |
     +---------------+

Many experienced users would reach for recode here. That's fine by me if it's fine by them.

[daniel klein]

Drawing on Nick's example, here are two ways of doing this with elabel (SSC)

clear
input float wrong
1
2
3
end
label values wrong wrong
label def wrong 1 "male", modify
label def wrong 2 "female", modify
label def wrong 3 "other", modify

// # 1
gen right:right = wrong - 1

label copy wrong right
elabel define right (= # - 1) (= @) , replace

// # 2
elabel recode wrong (1/3=0/2) , define(right2)
recode wrong `r(rules)' , generate(right2)
label values right2 right2

list
list , nolabel

Best
Daniel